Government rejects 13 Senate changes to pot bill

The Trudeau Liberals are rejecting more than a dozen Senate amendments to the government’s landmark law to legalized cannabis.

In a motion put before the Commons, the Liberals say they can’t support an amendment that would have allowed provinces to ban home cultivation of marijuana because provinces and territories will have the ability to place their own restrictions.

The government argues it is “critically important” to permit Canadians to grow pot at home in order to support the main goal of shutting down the illegal market.

The Liberals also say they won’t support amendments aimed at banning the sale of marijuana-branded swag like T-shirts, and one that would require a registry of anyone involved in cannabis companies that senators believed would keep organized crime out of the legal pot game.

The Senate approved the Trudeau government’s pot bill last week that would lift Canada’s 95-year-old prohibition on recreational cannabis, but made nearly four dozen amendments.

The government is set to accept 27 of the changes to the bill, rejected 13 amendments and is proposing tweaks to two others.

MPs will have to vote on the motion to send it back to the upper chamber where senators would have to decide whether to accept the will of the House of Commons or dig in for a protracted parliamentary battle over the bill.